Thank you, Bono. You’re absolutely right: we need to join forces to tackle the big problems, like providing energy to Africa’s more than 600 million people who still lack access to electricity. Our strength-in-numbers approach brings together more than 100 public and private sector partners to stimulate investment in sub-Saharan Africa’s power sector.

The 8.5 Megawatt (MW) solar field you saw at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda is an incredible example of what true partnership looks like. With partners like Gigawatt Global, we can bring new and cleaner electricity to an entire continent.

Our goal is not only to light up homes and businesses (60 million of them, to be exact), but to do it in a way that lets our African government partners take the reins and control their own energy destiny. We have more work to do, but with the weight of some of the world’s best companies and most committed organizations behind us, we will continue to add more megawatts and connections — and improve millions of lives — across Africa.

That’s our plan.